Rich Strauss at Crucible Fitness had the following to say on his forums about the Ironman Wisconsin bike course. Should be good information to review several times before race day.

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Here are my first impressions, with some additional comments regarding strategy, pacing, etc.

1. The bike course is absolutely beautiful. Assuming that IMNA puts on a top notch race, I predict that this event will be one of the more popular races on the calendar. Rolling farm land, no traffic, forests and woods to each side for much of the course. Add to this the fact that the race will be in the fall, when the leaves are turning and the weather should be nice. We got rained on for a few hours and it was muggy the rest of the day, but hopefully we won’t see a repeat on race day.
2. The bike course is a rider’s course. I predict that we will see a wide range of ride times on the course. More than any other I’ve done, IMMoo will force you to make decisions. On courses with long flats or long climbs, you only make a few decisions and then execute the plan for several minutes. Wisconsin requires constant attention and decision-making, due to the rolling hills and corners. It’s a blast, but it rewards stronger, disciplined, experienced riders and will probably punish weaker, less knowledgable riders. More on this aspect later.
3. Did I mention that it’s fun? Do yourself a favor and brush up on your cornering skills. There are some very twisty and fast sections that are just a blast to ride.

Strength and Experience. How will these be rewarded? Basically, the course has two kinds of rollers:

• Quick successive rollers, like a roller coaster. A strong rider will be able to build up enough speed on the backside of the hill to carry him over much of the next hill. In addition, knowledge of your gearing, climbing abilities and limitations will be critical. In short, there are MANY rollers that require a decision about two thirds up the hill: should I shift to the little ring and spin? Should I leave it in the big ring and hammer up the hill? Should I stand or sit?

  Tactic: Approach the roller with a good amount of speed. Shift through the gears to maintain your normal cadence. Know beforehand under what conditions (cadence, grade, HR, etc) that you intend to shift to the little ring. At the start of the hill pay very close attention to the pressure on your feet. Given two riders with equal cadence, the one that is pushing harder on the pedals is applying more power to the rear wheel. It’s very easy to turn up the power at the start of the hill, with very little tactical gain. These short, ineffective power spikes are going to add up and make for a very long day. Instead, focus on applying the same or perhaps slightly greater pressure to your feet as you do on the flats. Focus on this pressure and maintain it to the crest of the hill. The next step is very important: accelerate over the crest, maintaining or increasing your effort on the first portion of the downhill. In short, if you are going to push your effort on any portion on the hill, do it on the backside in order to generate enough speed to carry you over much of the NEXT hill. In my mind, I start a roller on the downhill of the preceding hill.

• Rollers with intervening flat: the course has many of these. You crest a hill and see a long downhill, a flat stretch, then another hill. Assumption: the intervening flat is too long to maintain your downhill speed without going outside of your target zone.

  Tactic #1: Maintain your effort down the backside of the hill, then coast and rest. Let the flat bleed some speed off until you reach a pre-determine speed, then soft-pedal to the base of the next hill. Manage the hill, extend the effort over the crest and make a plan for the next set of hills. This is what I plan to do for much of the first loop.

  Tactic #2: Hammer the downhill and maintain this effort over the flat and to the base of the next hill. Manage the hill, extend the effort over the crest, etc. I will probably use this tactic on the second loop, during some sections that I’ll keep secret :)

Now you’re saying “This is all great for a freak, but what about me?” Like I said above, this course requires you to think the entire time. It would be behoove you to:

1. Really think about these lessons above and try to simulate them during your local rides. If you are a flat-lander, do some mental rehearsals.
2. Make an honest assessment of your personal strengths and limitations.
3. Have the discipline to ride WITHIN these limitations on race day.
4. Remember the OODA Loop: Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. Observe the hill. Orient yourself to it: rank it and then make an assessment of your limitations with respect to the hill. Decide on a course of action. Then Act on your decision. I will also add “act with discipline.” Ride your plan for the hill, based on YOUR strengths and limitations, and ignore the other people around you. Let them hammer out of the saddle. Your plan is to coast by them on the downhill.

More on Decision Making
I almost forgot this one. A great feature of the course is high visibility. There are many sections where you crest a hill and can see the course and upcoming rollers for a mile or two. This will be a big help.

Gearing
I rode with a 55/39, 23-11 on a 650c wheel. I will probably experiment with making my own custom cassette for the race. There where a few spots where I could not find an optimum cadence, because I lost the tight ratio of a 21-11. But just when I thought I might ride with a 21-11 I’d hit a section where I was glad to have the 23. However, if you are in the 30-34 AG, I recommend a 56/42, 19-11.

Wheels
Definitely a disk course. I had almost $1k of performance measuring gear on my bike (PT and S710), none of which freakin’ worked consistently, so I had no idea of my speed for much of the course. But there were many sections where I was well over 30mph, and I would say there are only a handful of hills that you “climb.” You enter the rest with a significant amount of speed from the preceding hill.